Oialë
by Fire Eagle
Summary: After years and years of torment, Legolas escapes his captors. Aragorn, however, does not. The depths of Elvish grief…


Summary: After years and years of torment, Legolas escapes his captors. Aragorn, however, does not. The depths of Elvish grief…  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own LOTR, and, yes, if you wish for it on Chanukah, it doesn't help. I tried.  
  
Warnings: Blood, pain, harassment, grief…yes. Remembered stuff goes in ~these~  
  
Oialë  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
I know you're crying  
Somewhere out there  
But some things can't be changed  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Legolas eased his body against the cold stone of the cavern, wincing as the sharp rock cut his delicate skin. Sighing, he looked out into the sea of pearly white brilliance.  
  
Snow, of course, and cold, was not normally enough to cease his escape, but he was weakened from the years that he had spent in slavery…with Aragorn.  
  
Aragorn…  
  
Hot tears spilled from his beautiful blue eyes and down his thin, pale face. It burned his flesh, but he accepted the pain. The Valar knew that he deserved it. He deserved to be boiled in oil and eaten alive by Orcs.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Sometimes life  
Won't let you live  
The way you thought to claim  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
He remembered the chaos when the wargs attacked the camp, screeching. He remembered the sharp, jagged fangs as they tore both supplies and flesh. He remembered the fear when he was weaponless.   
  
And he remembered Aragorn.  
  
The Man had soothed him when they ripped his faithful horse into bloody remains, and held his temper when the slavers took them…  
  
That had probably saved him from a horrible death.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
I know you hurt  
That the pain's too great  
And that you're torn by strife  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The Ranger had helped him sleep at night, and stroked his hair when the poison made him delirious, and even helped him when he was lonely. After all, the Ranger was only there as a bartering token, a way of getting the Elf to obey. He never weathered the blows to his spirit that Legolas took.  
  
He had helped his friend, as well.  
  
Keeping the cold away, using some cloth from his breeches to bind his wounds, sharing his meager food, though the hard, moldy bread wasn't much good…  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
But maybe  
We can forge a way  
Through this endless night  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The living conditions…ai, he had tried to commit suicide, and would have succeeded, if not for his beloved friend, telling him that it was the coward's way out, not the warrior's.   
  
They had sent him to the most laborious, pointless, humiliating tasks; stripping him of his clothes and forcing him to carry heavy rocks from place to place, letting the Men and Dwarves take their pleasure from him at night…  
  
It had taken so long for him to shatter, but he had done so horribly. When the horror led him to insanity, Aragorn was kind to him, and the Man let him do as he would, gently protecting him in his vulnerability. He took the nightly violations for his friend while he was so innocent, returning just in time to embrace his trembling body and kiss his tears away.  
  
He recalled only the vaguest bits of memory, there, but he knew that the debt was far beyond repayable.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
I'll be there  
To hold you tight  
To ease your endless pain  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Then, at last, when his mind had begun to heal, Aragorn devised a plan to let them both free.   
  
They stole the pride of the camp, a beautiful white stallion, and rode away on its strong back. Legolas sat in front, Estel's stronger arms wrapped around his weak, thin body, with his head resting on the Man's chest, too weak to rise.   
  
He remembered the sweat and the chaos as the others chased them, the arrows flying through the frigid air, and screams…  
  
Aragorn's screams.  
  
A black arrow pierced his chest, then another, blood rushing from his wound. He had started to sob hysterically as Aragorn fell to the ground, eyes glazing and arms slack in a deadly embrace of coldness. The horses galloped over his body in a sea.  
  
Legolas had wanted to follow his brother past the final gates, but he heard Aragorn's word again.  
  
~the coward's way out…~  
  
The magnificent steed had kept racing, trying to escape its old masters, and, somewhere in the blur, he had made it here, crawling and running when his horse died of overexertion.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
And if your soul  
Was torn to shreds  
I'd love you just the same  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The memories were enough to kill him. He began to sob and writhe on the stone, gasping for breath and feeling the ghosts of warm hands caress his back before fading away.   
  
He couldn't breathe, and he couldn't feel anything but anguish…  
  
Anguish and the loathsome touch of his captors.  
  
~It'll be alright, Legolas. They won't take you away from me. Only death shall break us apart, and even then, I'd fight off death to wait for you, gwador nin~  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The twilight hour  
Won't take our wings  
And time shall come to see  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Pain flared and wracked his body, foul fingers ripped his soul and shattered his mind, brutally destroying what centuries had perfected. The intrusive entity continued to utterly rape his being, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. An ocean of tears and sweat devoured him as it pooled on the rocks, and his voice cracked mid-scream.  
  
"Do you hear me, Estel?" he shrieked as blood rushed in his ears, grasping the stone until the skin on his fingers split open. "Do you feel my torment? I hate you!"  
  
He hated him, true, for all of this torment, yet he loved him above all else.  
  
The hurt consumed him in its greedy flame, and grief began to kill him at last. He felt blackness tinge his sight and the air become too thin to sustain the lust of his heaving body.  
  
Before oblivion shrouded him, he thought he felt Aragorn's gentle, strong arms embrace him a final time before numbness kissed him.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
That friendship lasts  
Beyond their eyes  
Past all eternity…  
Oialë  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 


End file.
